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SURVICE Metrology Work Used in Recently Published Smithsonian Study

Posted on 07/19/2013

Based on the findings of a decade-long study (that SURVICE Metrology supported), archaeologists from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History have published a new book that challenges some long-held beliefs about America’s first inhabitants. The book, entitled Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture, claims that America’s original settlers were actually from Europe and not Asia, as has been widely believed. The claim is supported by the discovery of numerous stone tools, which some researchers believe to be more than 20,000 years old, thus predating other stone tools (the Clovis stone tools) that are long thought to have been left by America’s first inhabitants.

To support the study, SURVICE was asked to use a variety of scanning tools and processes to digitally measure and produce a more complete replica of some of the ancient artifacts (in particular, a stone tool called a “biface”). A Breuckmann Opto Top-HE white light scanner was used to provide full-color scan data, and a Krypton K-600 system was used to create an alignment file for the data, thus increasing data placement accuracy. PolyWorks software was then used to post-process the data and create a closed model, from which 3-D printing/prototyping could be performed.